<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">SEATTLE - The Seattle SuperSonics today requested waivers on guard Mateen Cleaves and forward Galen Young, Sonics General Manager Rick Sund announced. Both players were signed as free agents by the Sonics on Oct. 4. Cleaves, 27, was a first-round pick of the Detroit Pistons in 2000 out of Michigan State and is a veteran of four NBA seasons with the Pistons, the Sacramento Kings and Cleveland Cavaliers. Cleaves owns career averages of 4.2 points and 2.1 assists in 126 NBA games. Cleaves averaged 4.4 points and 2.8 assists in five preseason games with the Sonics. Young, 29, was trying to make his first NBA roster. The Charlotte product was waived by the Sonics last October after spending training camp with the team. Young averaged 4.5 points and 2.8 rebounds in four preseason games, but shot just 6-for-18 from the field (33.3%). The Sonics roster now stands at 14 players. Forward/guard Damien Wilkins is the only training-camp invitee remaining in camp with the Sonics. </div> <font size="1">Full Story courtesy of the official site.</font> I would say that will round out our roster now, with 14 players. Kudos to Cleaves and Young for sticking around as long as they did, but I think it was pretty clear that Wilkins was the most talented of the three.
Smart decision, too bad for Cleaves because he's a quality player and an overall good guy. Wilkins definitely earned the last spot on the roster though.
Dave Young was waived too a couple of weeks ago (I completely missed that), which means out 13 contracted players are Allen, Lewis, Evans, Fortson, Collison, Ridnour, Murray, Radmanovic, Potapenko, James, Swift, Daniels and Kutluay and the 14th and final spot goes to either Wilkins or someone off the waiver wire around the league, although you'd assume it will be Damien.
Well, Damien Wilkins is officially the 14th member of our family. I think that he deserved it but I'm disappointed that David Young wasn't able to secure the spot. I wish that Dave would have gotten a fair shot to show what he could do, but ultimately I think that Wilkins is a better fit. With Lewis hurting, Wilkins may have a bigger role on the team than most people would expect. Hopefully he can provide some scoring off of the bench without being too much of a defensive liability.
The biggest knock on Wilkins was an inconsistent jumper, and thus far over pre-season he's shown an ability to not only knock down the midrange jumper, but the three too. I was reading a profile on him the other day, and although he stands around 6'6, he has a wingspan of around 7'0, which means he's able to play a lot bigger defensively than he actually is.
